Apetrei continues biotechnology, life sciences seminar series

Cristian Apetrei
Cristian Apetrei

"The Call of the Wild: Studies of SIV Infection in Natural Hosts in the Wild," will be presented by Cristian Apetrei from the University of Pittsburgh at 4 p.m., Feb. 12 in E103 Beadle Center. The Beadle Center is located at 1901 Vine Street. The seminar is free and open to the public.

SIV infection in naturally-infected nonhuman primates from Africa that are natural hosts is considered nonpathogenic. However, virtually no study investigated the natural history of SIV infection in the wild. In two large-scale studies performed in two different species of Afican green monkeys in the wild, we assessed for the first time the natural history of SIV infection in the wild.

We report that SIV infection has no discernible impact on the major immune cell populations in natural hosts, thus confirming the nonpathogenic nature of SIV infection in the wild. We also focused on the correlates of SIV transmission and we report, also for the first time, that SIV transmission in the wild is characterized by a major genetic bottleneck, similar to that described for HIV-1 transmission in humans. Finally, we report here that the restriction of target cell availability is a major correlate of the lack of SIV transmission to the offspring in natural hosts of SIVs.

The complete schedule of seminars may be found at http://biotech.unl.edu/.

More details at: http://go.unl.edu/efix